Let's Talk About Sex, Baby
by Nicolette134
Summary: First fic for this show!
1. Chapter 1

Cary and Stella had been dating for six whole weeks, two of them publicly instead of just secretly, and Cary hadn't even broached the topic of sex. This doesn't seem like much time, but Cary had had sex once, and once you do it, you want to do it again.

He thinks of it like the mouse and the cookie- she just thinks its funny how desperate he is and how hard he tries to act like he isn't. Not funny because she enjoys his discomfort, although that too might be true, but kind of like a bittersweet irony. Cary was being so sweet, and Stella hasn't even told him about her secret, _and_ she was going to have to shoot him down over the whole sex thing.

"Let's talk about sex," she blurts out randomly. He basically chokes on his giant bite of hamburger- the way he eats was pretty gross, but whatever, he's good looking.

"Okay, but dibs on Pepa," he responded, once he composed himself.

"I'm serious," she said, instantly regretting her words. She was always serious. Too serious. "What I mean is why haven't we talked about it yet? You're a warm blooded male- you do find me attractive right?"

"Babe, you know I'm attracted to you," said Cary, kissing her lightly, "Truth is, I just don't want to pressure you. There's nothing wrong with that is there?"

"No, I guess not," she shrugged, and he kissed her again.

"What's really bothering you? You in a race to lose your VCard or something?"

"No, Cary, I'm not that juvenile," she started before taking a big breath, "Plus, I'm not a virgin anyway."

Cary did a full on spit take at this, and Stella cringed. Maybe she shouldn't have brought this up in public, the other diner patrons were starting to stare.

"You're not?" he croaked, and from the look on his face she could tell he was trying to think of when it happened and who with.

"No. But listen, if I had it my way, it would have been with you."

"Well yeah, same here. But- you know- I really kind of thought you were a virgin."

"Nope," she shook her head.

"So are you bringing this up because you want to have sex?"

"No. I just- I thought you should know."

"Oh. So, just to clarify, you want me to know you had sex with some other guy, but don't want to have it with me?"

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

"Of course. Of course it is. I just have to ask- is it something I did?"

"No, oh my God, Cary no. That's not it at all. Listen, how about we get out of here and go for a walk- I don't want to talk about this in here."

"Yeah, okay. Lemme just get the bill."


	2. Chapter 2

"So you've had sex. That's not a big deal. I've had sex too," Cary said.

"I know Cary, I'm not trying to one up you or anything," Stella said.

"I know, that's not like you babe," Cary said, grabbing Stella's hand and kissing it.

"No, it isn't." It's so unlike her to do anything so childish or, you know, normal. "Cary, let's go sit over there." Stella was ready to come clean- at least partially.

"Oh Lord," he said, "That sounds like bad news. Am I in trouble?"

"No, I think I might be the one in trouble."

"Oh my God, you're pregnant!?"

"No, Jesus, Cary!"

"I'm sorry, usually when someone says they aren't a virgin and follows that up with 'I'm in trouble', it means they're knocked up!"

"No Cary, I'm not pregnant. I'm just trying to tell you that I slept with Miranda's brother. Remember the boy that kept teasing you all and antagonizing Jed?"

"You slept that jackass?"

"Yes. Kind of."

"What do you mean kind of?"

"I mean we didn't like go the whole way, but it happened, you know?"

"What are you talking about? You didn't go the whole way, but it happened?"

"Well, I- I- oh, you know," Stella was embarrassed and exasperated as she gestured towards her boyfriends, er, _nether regions_.

"You gave him a blow job? Oh, God, Stella, I don't mean to laugh. Just, the hand motions, you're too cute, you know that?" he said.

"Oh this is mortifying. I just thought you should know, you know. I know you've had sex, I just wanted to tell you I sort of have too."

"Babe, that doesn't matter to me. At all. Whenever you're ready, you're ready."

"You don't know how much hearing you say that means to me," Stella was practically in tears.

"Babe, baby- are you sure you're telling me everything?"

"Yes," said Stella, until she began to cry, "No. I'm not."

"What then? Did he, you know, make you?"

"It's not how you think though. Well it is. Oh, Cary- I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything. Stella I'm serious, tell me what you want, when you want. I'll be here when you're ready."

They walked in silence after that, but Cary didn't forget what had been said. Even as he held Stella and kissed her on her front porch, he was thinking of that asshole, and what he had done to her to shake her up so bad. And he was thinking of what he was going to do the next time he saw the older boy.


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own anything. In fact, my student loans mean I probably never will LAWLS.  
**

**Shout out to Supermanne7 for being my first comment on this fic, lav yuh.**

Cary wasn't the type to sit around letting girls cry and watching guys get away with it, so, the next day after school, he did something about it. He obviously did not tell Stella, she'd flip, but after walking her home from school he walked to Miranda's house. Pounding on the door he didn't know what he was going to say, he didn't know what he would do if anyone but her brother answered the door.

Luckily, he didn't have to worry about that much, as the door swung open, revealing the older boy. Cary didn't think, he just acted.

The first punch was a sucker-punch, that's true, but Cary gave the brother time to stagger to his feet before socking him again. Cary hadn't gotten into many fights in his life, but his size and sheer anger came to his advantage and he naturally knew what to do, that is, until Justin **(A.N. I don't think the character of Miranda's brother was ever actually given a name, but the actor who portrays him is named Justin, so I'm going with that) **decided to put to use his military-school training and fight back.

They were fairly evenly matched, and were rolling around on the Mill's front lawn when Miranda came home from school with one of her friends.

"Christ, Justin, get off him. I know this kid, what do you think you're doing?" she said, a sandal flying off her foot as she kicked her brother

"What am I doing? I don't Miranda, he was banging on the door so I opened it and he hit me."

"_You _started this Cary? What, do you have a death wish or something? God, I knew Stella was bad, but take a chill pill."

"_Oh_," said Justin, realization dawning on him, as his mouth turned up into a creepy-looking grin, "this is about Stella, huh?"

"Don't even say her name," said Cary, lunging again, but Miranda grabbed his arm and held him off.

"What's Stella got to do with this?" asked Miranda, looking confused at both boys while her friends stared wide eyed at the girl standing between to big, angry, testosterone-filled guys.

"Ask him," said Cary, spitting blood from his mouth, "Fucking ask him."

"Courtney, could you do me a favor and drive Cary home? I need to talk to my brother and I think it'd be best-" started Miranda, before Cary cut her off.

"No. I want to know. What the hell happened between you two that she can't even tell me?"

"Well you see, baby-boy, it wasn't just between her and me. It was between her and a whole lot of other people."


	4. Chapter 4

"You're full of shit. What the fuck are you talking about?" asked Cary again, and Miranda too was genuinely confused. She didn't even know her brother knew Stella, let alone had anything to do with her.

"She was so wasted that night. Going on and on about how nobody liked her or some shit like that, because she's too "uptight". Well, let's just say me and a couple of my buddies put her "tightness" to good use."

At that Miranda stepped out of the way, knowing there was virtually nothing she could do to keep Cary from taking about swing at her brother- frankly, she thought he deserved that and more.

"You're lying. She didn't tell it like that, that's not what happened!" Cary wailed, sitting on top of Justin's body and punching him repeatedly in the face until Miranda tore him off, in an effort to find out what really happened.

"Cut the shit, Justin, what the fuck did you do to her?" she asked, exasperated.

"Jesus, this guy can't take a joke. I don't know, I didn't even do it. One of the guys offered her a drink and it turns out it was drugged and she got real sloppy. None of us hit it, though she did go down on a few of us," Miranda was disgusted by the over-sharing her brother was doing _and_ by the fact that he drugged a girl to do it. The little bastard had a smug little grin on his face and she had half a mind to let Cary at him again, heck, she'd hold him down if it helped.

"Justin, that's fucking disgusting. What if someone had pulled that shit on me, huh? Then would it be a funny little joke to tell. I should let this guy kill you for that, that's so fucked up. Oh my God, who the hell are you? Ever since you started at this fucking school I hardly know you anymore. What would Mom and Dad think? What about your school? Your girlfriend? Jesus, do you drug her too? Justin get the hell out of here, I can't even stand to look at you, you perverted little asshole," Miranda was screaming now, right in her brother's face. She might not be Stella's biggest fan, but the fact that he had done this to her classmate, hell, her friend, really disturbed her.

Justin slapped Miranda across the face, got into his car, and drove away. Cary held a sobbing Miranda, who was gripping her face, while her friend called 911. This was going to be hard to explain to Stella.


	5. Chapter 5

**Don't own- I ****_wish_**** I owned Chris Evans though3**

**Not actually a new chapter, sorry to my, like, one reader...I just wanted to reorder them, so they were more even, word count wise.**

**Don't own, sorry it took so long to update.**

**Just a short one to keep things going(:**

"Miranda, honey, lemme get a look at you," Courtney said, trying to edge in between Miranda and Cary, but Miranda just gripped the tall boy harder to her and kept on crying.

"Miranda, the cops are on their way, you're going to have to tell them what happened, okay?" said Cary, talking in a soothing voice and rubbing circles in the small of her back.

"I- I can't," Miranda wailed, "He's my br-br-brother, my dad will kill us!"

"What'd you mean, 'Randa? This is totally his fault, your dad wont be mad at you," said Courtney.

"Yes he will," said Miranda, gulping down the rest of her tears and stepping an inch away from Cary so her already-bruising jaw was on display, "Sure, he'll be pissed that Justin did it here, in front of you guys, but he'll be angrier that I told. Justin'll get kicked out of the academy and then Daddy'll lose respect, and hell, I've never told before, have I?"

"You mean this isn't the first time Justin has hit you?" asked Cary, his concern again replaced by anger.

"No. And my dad does it too, sometimes. Usually he just hits Justin, because Justin has more of an excuse for getting roughed up and stuff, but sometimes it trickles down from Justin to me. Not often though, I really don't think I can do this. Tell the cops not to come, tell them I tripped, tell them all the things I tell you when I come to school with too much makeup caked on," and with that Miranda spouted a fresh batch of tears, and Cary pulled her into him once again, careful of hurting her delicate frame, not knowing if she had other bruises, or where they might be.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry it's taken me so long to update**

**Still don't own anything  
**

"Courtney, tell the cops not to come," said Cary, scooping the still crying girl in his arms and moving her into the house.

"Are you kidding?" she asked, incredulously.

"I don't want to risk Miranda getting hurt worse because of me, this was all my fault anyway. Tell them it was a false alarm or something, tell them you thought there was a domestic abuse, but it wasn't."

"Are you sure?" she asked, and both she and Cary looked down at Miranda, curled up on the couch, who nodded furiously, too shaken to speak.

"I'm sure," he answered, heading to the fridge to look for an ice pack and grabbed the quintessential bag of frozen peas.

Returning to the couch he carefully approached Miranda, fully aware of how lanky and awkward he was being and sat down next to her.

"Miranda, you should ice that," he said gently, as Courtney excused herself to make the phone call, not wanting the cops to hear if Miranda got hysterical again.

"It's too cold," she said, pushing it away from him, so he got up and wrapped it in a paper towel, handing it back to her.

"Nurse Cary, at your service," he joked lightly, and she cracked a smile.

"This is usually my mom's job," she said, moving the makeshift ice pack from her face to speak, but placing it back when he gestured to hold it in place.

"Your mom knows about this?" now it was Cary's turn to be incredulous.

"Of course," she said with an angry laugh, moving the ice pack again until Cary shifted positions so she could lean on him and could hold it in place while she spoke, "I guess she's just happy it isn't her anymore, you know? But he doesn't hit my face too often; thank goodness Picture Day's already passed."

"Jeez Miranda, I had no idea," he said.

"There was no way you could've known. Nobody knew. I don't want anyone else _to_ know, you hear me? No telling your friends, especially not Jed," she said, moving her head into his lap and stretching her legs out across the couch.

"If that's what you want, fine. I'll respect your wishes, but I'm not happy about it," he said, noticing his cell phone vibrating in his pocket.

"Either you find domestic abuse hot, or someone's trying to get to you," Miranda said, smiling more readily now.

Cary took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the screen.

"It's Stella," he said, wondering wildly what he would say to his girlfriend.

"You can take it," Miranda murmured, moving to sit back up.

"No, stay," Cary said, hitting ignore and gently pushing her back down, "this is important."

"You know," said Miranda after a moment of silence, "you're a good guy Cary."

"You're a great girl Miranda," he responded, "and you deserve better than this."


	7. Chapter 7

**Merp. I, like, neva update. Sowwy.**

"Stella?" said Cary, hoping that his girlfriend hadn't somehow figured out what had happened.

"Cary, where have you been? Why haven't you answered your phone, what the hell is going on?" she said, rushing her words showing both her concern and, frankly, how pissed off she was.

"Stella, baby, I'm sorry I haven't been accepting your calls. I'm at the Mills' house, I'm with Miranda now," Cary started to explain.

"Oh my God Cary, I cannot believe you went over there. I didn't want people to know about this, I didn't want _Miranda_ to know about this. Have you spoken to Justin yet?" she said, her words coming to fast as she panicked.

"Stella," said Cary, trying to calm her down, "Stella, it's fine."

"You did, you talked to him. Dammit, Cary, why'd you have to do that?" she was practically yelling into the phone, and Cary thought she might start to hyperventilate, "What the hell did he tell you happened anyway? It's a lie, don't believe a word he says."

"Stella, he didn't say anything bad about you at all. It was his entire fault, his and his stupid, asshole friends'. He told me what happened, baby, it wasn't your fault, it wasn't anything you did," said Cary, trying in vain to sooth his girlfriend over the phone while trying not to wake up Miranda, who'd finally cried herself to a restless sleep.

He'd carried her up to her room, but he and Courtney had stayed in the living room, just in case Justin decided to come back. He didn't know how to explain that all to Stella, so he chose not to, for the time anyway. He had promised Miranda he wouldn't tell, but there must be _something_ he could do- there's no way Miranda could stay in these conditions, and Justin shouldn't either, as much as it pained him to even think of the boy.

"Cary?" whispered Stella into the phone, "Do you still like me?"

"Stella, I'd do anything for you, you know that," he answered, smiling in spite of himself.

"Then would you please come over? Nobody is home and- well- I don't want to be alone tonight," she said, sounding for all its worth like a small child.

"Sure baby, I'll be over as soon as I can."

* * *

Miranda woke up after a short while, and convinced Cary and Courtney that she was alright, she had just panicked about getting hit in front of them. After some persuasion, they convinced her that she should try talking to someone, a shrink preferably, one of them in a pinch. She promised she'd look into it, she iced her eye some more, and then she sent Cary off to Stella's joking that she'd have someone far scarier than her father _or _her brother on her ass if Stella thought they'd been taking too long together.


	8. Chapter 8

"Stella?" called Cary, knocking on the front door, hoping she wasn't so pissed at him she wasn't going to let him in.

"Hi," she said, opening the door a minute later, wiping her face. It was clear she had been crying and honestly Cary didn't think he could handle and more girls crying. Even Courtney had cried a little, after Miranda fell asleep, and he'd had to comfort _her _when all he wanted was for someone to comfort _him_. He wasn't used to all these feelings and shit- its so much easier to be a guy than a girl.

"Baby," he started, opening his arms towards her. Thankfully, she seemed to know that he couldn't handle any more sadness, and, reaching up to kiss him, pulled him into the living room.

"Let's just watch a movie, huh? I don't wanna cry anymore," she said, and he breathed a sigh of relief before sitting down on the couch.

"Want anything to drink?" she asked, headed towards the kitchen. Stella was the take charge type, of course she was trying to busy herself instead of throwing a pity party. That was probably why she wanted him over more than anything- to have someone to distract her. He felt bad he'd taken so long at Miranda's, but he knew she'd needed him too.

He still didn't know how he was going to explain that one to Stella, and was hoping that she wouldn't bring it up and he'd have some time to figure out what he was going to do about the Mills family. In the mean time he just wanted to relax and sit with his girlfriend.

"I'll have what you're having," he answered, smiling at her as she rolled her eyes and headed in to make popcorn and grab them some Cokes.

"Diet alright?" she asked, and he crinkled his nose. She smiled as she handed him a regular coke and placed hers down on the coffee table.

"So not what I'm having," she said, keeping it light.

"Well, you're more delicate than I am. I need to beef up, you know?" he said.

"So you can fight?" she asked, and he knew he'd walked right into that one.

"Babe, I'll explain it all to you when I can, but for now, just now, I'll always be there for you," he said, taking a sip of his Coke as she watched him profile intently for a second.

"Good answer," she said, leaning into him and clicking on the movie. He breathed a sigh of relief and kissed the top of her head before settling into the couch to unwind from the day's events.


End file.
